MR.  L.EX 


The  Legal  Status  of  Mother 
and  Child 


Catharine  Waugh  McCulloch 


GIFT  or 
George  B.Allen 


MR.  LEX 


OR 


The  Legal  Status  or  Mother  and  Child 


Catharine  Waugh  McCulloch 


Chicago     :     New  York     :     Toronto 

Fleming  H.  Re  veil  Company 
1899 


GIFT 

Copyrighted  1899  by  Catharine  Waugh  Me  Cut  lock 


TO  MOTHERS, 

SOME    OF    WHOM    NOW    SUFFER    THROUGH    UNJUST 

LAWS; 
TO  FATHERS, 

MANY    OF    WHOM     ARE     KINDER     THAN    THE    LAWS 
AND    ARE    PROBABLY     IGNORANT    OF    OR 

INDIFFERENT  TO  POSSIBLE 
INJUSTICE; 

TO  LEGISLATORS, 

WHO    HAVE    THE    POWER    TO    CHANGE    LAWS. 


PREFACE. 


In  the  following  pages  the  form  of 
fiction  is  used  in  order  to  place  more 
vividly  before  the  reader  the  injustice 
which  results  from  laws  which  make 
fathers  sole  guardians  and  custodians 
of  their  children.  The  incidents  related 
are  all  paralleled  in  real  life.  The 
court  decisions  described  are  based  on 
statutes  and  actual  decisions  of  courts. 
The  authority  for  all  statements  of  law 
can  be  found  in  the  table  of  citations 
appended.  The  numerals  in  parenthe- 
ses through  the  text  refer  to  the  cita- 
tions in  the  table  bearing  the  same 
number. 

Lack  of  space  prevents  the  presenta- 
tion of  authorities  from  every  State,  and 
so  only  Illinois  authorities  are  cited. 
But  as  three-fourths  of  our  States  make 
fathers  the  sole  guardians  and  custo- 
dians of  children,  and  deprive  mothers 

A-t  «o  rr  «  o 
4 1  \>  t>  1 0 


6 <';  ,  ; ' ,  Preface. 

of  such  authority,  the  courts  in  these 
States,  in  circumstances  similar  to  those 
narrated,  render  similar  decisions.  This 
makes  the  question  of  parental  author- 
ity of  more  than  local  importance. 

These  laws  originated  many  years 
ago  under  military  despotisms,  when 
fathers  alone  were  strong,  educated, 
responsible,  possessed  of  property,  and 
skilled  in  war.  The  welfare  of  the 
children,  the  good  of  the  State,  seemed 
to  require  that  the  ignorant,  dependent, 
helpless  mothers  should  not  be  invested 
with  authority  over  their  children. 

But  the  conditions  which  gave  rise  to 
these  laws  no  longer  prevail.  Mothers 
are  today  responsible,  cultivated,  dis- 
creet, experienced,  and,  under  the 
changed  conditions  of  society,  are  en- 
tirely capable  of  sharing  with  fathers  in 
the  guardianship  and  control  of  their 
children.  The  laws  should  be  so 
changed  as  to  allow  mothers  such  power. 

Other  laws  relating  to  women  have 
changed,  as  law-makers  have  slowly 
recognized  women's  increasing  ability 
and  power.  All  our  States  now  allow 


Preface  7 

women  to  devise  and  bequeath  their 
own  property;  three-fifths  of  our  States 
allow  them  to  possess,  manage,  and 
convey  their  own  real  and  personal 
property;  nearly  all  the  States  allow 
them  equal  rights  under  the  divorce 
laws;  four  States  grant  them  complete 
rights  of  suffrage;  one  grants  them 
municipal  suffrage  and  twenty-three, 
school  suffrage;  some  States  have  so 
far  recognized  mothers'  obligations  to 
the  family  as  to  make  them  liable  for 
family  expenses;  and  about  one- fourth 
of  the  States  recognize  in  some  way  the 
authority  of  mothers  over  their  chil- 
dren. 

It  must  not  be  forgotten  that,  though 
women  have  petitioned  for  more  equi- 
table laws,  these  great  changes  have 
only  become  possible  through  men's 
generosity,  when  they  were  persuaded 
that  the  good  of  women,  of  children,  of 
the  home  and  of  the  State  demanded 
improved  conditions. 

So  there  is  ground  for  believing  that 
men  will  continue  to  make  alterations  in 
laws  as  soon  as  they  are  convinced  of 


8  Preface 

the  necessity.  Laws  should  be  changed 
so  that  fathers  and  mothers  may  be 
joint  guardians  and  custodians  of  their 
children  with  equal  responsibility«and 
authority. 

If  this  book  shall  in  any  degree  help 
mothers  to  a  clear  vision  of  their  own 
responsibilities;  if  it  shall  convince 
fathers  that  mothers,  deprived  of  power, 
can  never  do  their  full  duty  toward  their 
children;  or  if  it  shall  induce  legislators 
to  change  unjust  laws,  its 'purpose  will 
be  accomplished. 

CATHARINE  WAUGHGMcCuLLocH, 
Chicago^  January,  1899. 


MR.  LEX. 


MR.  LEX. 


Mr.  and  Mrs.  Lex  and  their  five  chil- 
dren lived  in  a  small  flat  in  Lake  View, 
an  outlying  section  of  Chicago,  about 
two  blocks  away  from  the  grocery  store 
which  Mr.  Lex  managed.  He  had  not 
always  been  a  grocer,  but  prided  him- 
self on  having  an  education  superior  to 
his  employment  and  surroundings.  He 
had  been  educated  for  the  profession  of 
law,  and  at  the  time  of  his  admission  to 
the  bar  had  been  considered  a  clever, 
bright  young  fellow  but  somewhat  con- 
ceited and  overbearing.  His  wife  had 
been  very  proud  of  him  as  she  fondly 
pictured  his  future  successes.  But,  after 
ten  years  of  waiting  for  clients,  he  at 
last  decided  to  give  it  up.  Either  his 
nervous,  irritable  manner,  or  lack  of 
thoroughness,  or  one  or  two  great  blun- 
ders, or  lack  of  tact,  or  all  combined, 
had  conspired  to  bring  him  few  clients 
and  little  income. 


12  Mr.  Lex 

During  these  early  years  of  waiting 
for  success,  his  wife  had  devoted  to 
family  expenses  the  money  which  her 
father  had  bequeathed  to  her.  Little 
children  had  been  coming  into  the 
home,  and  increasing  needs  had  greatly 
diminished  her  inheritance.  It  had  not 
been  large  in  the  first  place;  for  her 
father  had  devised  the  bulk  of  his  prop- 
erty to  his  son,  his  theory  being  that, 
as  husbands  support  wives,  daughters 
need  but  little.  Mrs.  Lex's  mother  pro- 
tested against  this  injustice,  and  urged 
that  the  property  she  helped  him  to 
earn  should  be  divided  equally  between 
her  son  and  daughter.  But,  as  is  gen- 
erally the  case,  the  title  to  everything 
was  in  the  husband's  name;  so  he  was 
not  obliged  to  heed  his  wife's  protests, 
nor  did  he. 

So  Mrs.  Lex  learned  early,  as  her 
first  lesson  on  the  legal  status  of  mother 
and  child,  that  her  own  mother,  because 
she  had  nothing  in  her  name,  could  not 
give  or  bequeath  to  her  any  of  her  own 
savings  or  earnings,  although  the 
statutes  of  Illinois  even  then  provided 


Mr.  Lex  13 

that  married  women  might  control  their 
earnings  and  convey  (i)  or  bequeath  them 
(2).  She  also  learned  that,  although 
our  laws  concerning  inheritances  make 
no  difference  as  to  sex  when  the  father 
dies  without  a  will,  yet  he  can  make  a 
will  disinheriting  his  child. 

Of  her  inheritance,  a  little  grocery 
store  was  the  only  thing  now  left,  and 
Mrs.  Lex  had  finally  induced  her  hus- 
band to  go  into  that,  since  ten  years  of 
the  practice  of  law  with  few  clients  and 
the  exhausting  of  her  own  funds  had 
brought  them  to  poverty.  So  he  de- 
scended, as  he  called  it,  into  a  grocery 
store;  but  he  never  forgot  that  he  had 
learned  something  about  law,  that  he 
was  a  lawyer,  and  that  he  had  sworn 
to  support  the  constitutions  of  the 
United  States  and  of  the  State  of 
Illinois  and  faithfully  to  discharge  the 
duties  of  the  office  of  attorney  and 
counsellor  at  law.  His  subsequent  con- 
duct showed  that  he  kept  his  vow  even 
when  it  necessitated  breaking  others 
holier  and  higher. 

The  oldest  son,  John,  helped  in  the 


14  Mr.  Lex 

store.  He  was  not  quite  sixteen  years 
old.  Mary  was  fourteen,  Jennie  was 
eleven,  Rob  was  nine  and  Daisy  six. 

Mrs.  Lex,  though  a  pretty  girl  at 
eighteen,  when  she  married,  was  now, 
at  thirty-five,  a  faded,  careworn 
woman  with  much  of  her  early  hope 
gone.  She  had  economized  and  worked 
hard,  caring  for  the  family,  with  no 
help  except  for  a  few  weeks  when  her 
children  were  very  young.  To  sew, 
wash,  bake,  and  clean  for  a  family  in- 
creasing from  two  to  seven  in  ten  years 
had  been  no  small  task,  but  she  could 
have  endured  these  physical  burdens 
cheerfully  if  her  husband  had  been 
as  tender  as  he  was  when  they 
were  first  married.  Now  he  grum- 
bled, he  argued,  he  scolded;  when  he 
was  asked  for  money  he  always  ob- 
jected, and  declared  that  he  furnished 
the  family  all  the  law  required.  As  to 
food,  that  could  be  got  out  of  the  store, 
and  as  to  clothes,  he  chose  what  he 
thought  best.  His  wife  gently  hinted 
that  with  the  same  money  she  could  do 
better,  but  he  told  her  the  law  never 


Mr.  Lex  15 

provided  that  she  should  dictate  in 
what  manner  his  money  should  be 
spent  by  selecting  things  herself.  So 
he  put  Rob  into  long  trousers  when  he 
was  nine,  though  Rob  complained  that 
he  could  not  run  well.  He  chose  green, 
checked  green,  for  John's  last  suit  of 
clothes,  the  one  color  above  all  others 
that  John  abominated  and  that  made 
him  look  ghastly.  When  Mrs.  Lex  said 
that  John  would  enjoy  better  a  suit  of 
brown  or  gray  he  told  her  that  it  was 
his  place  to  choose  colors.  She  keep- 
ing house  at  home,  with  no  salary,  had 
not  a  cent  of  money.  But  he  was  get- 
ting some  money  now  from  the  custo- 
mers at  the  store  and  could  be  more 
arrogant  than  when  the  money  came 
through  his  wife. 

When  he  took  Mary  down  street  he 
bought  a  pink  felt  hat  trimmed  with 
yellow  chrysanthemums  and  a  carmine 
bird.  He  purchased  also  a  purple 
jacket  and  a  blue  dress.  Everything 
was  of  durable  material,  he  said,  and 
he  liked  a  variety  of  color.  When  Mrs. 
Lex  beheld  pretty  Mary  in  this  array, 


1 6  Mr.  Lex 

she  again  urged  that  she  could  better 
select  the  clothes,  and  he  again  told 
her  they  must  submit  to  his  selections. 

A  neighbor  had  once  informed  her 
that  she  could  buy  what  she  needed 
at  any  store,  have  it  charged  to  her 
husband,  and  he  would  be  obliged  to 
pay  for  the  article.  So  she  bought  a 
neat  gray  jacket  for  Jennie,  who  had 
had  no  winter  coat  for  three  years,  and 
had  it  charged  to  her  husband. 

When  the  bill  came  Mr.  Lex  refused 
to  pay  it,  and  so  he  was  sued,  the  dry- 
goods  firm  claiming  that  this  was  a 
family  expense  for  which  he,  a  parent, 
was  legally  liable.  Mr.  Lex  defended 
his  own  suit,  asserting  that  this  was  not 
a  family  nor  a  necessary  expense. 
Jennie  could  wear  the  plaid  green-and- 
red  shawl  she  had  worn  for  the  past 
three  years.  Mrs.  Lex  whispered  to 
him  that  she  herself  needed  it  to  wear 
under  the  thin,  old  one  which  had  been 
her  only  wrap  for  years,  but  he  hushed 
her  into  silence. 

He  said,  "This  jacket  is  not  needed 
for  the  family;  'it  in  no  way  conduces  to 


Mr.  Lex  17 

the  welfare  of  the  family,  generally/  (3) 
It  is  'for  personal  adornment,  largely  to 
gratify  vanity;  and  though  it  may  be 
incidentally  worn  in  the  family,  its  pri- 
mary and  important  use  is  for  display 
in  general,  society.'  Therefore,  in 
accordance  with  the  decision  of  the 
Supreme  Court  (3)  this  could  not  be  a 
family  expense  for  which  I  would  be 
liable."  The  lawyer  for  the  firm 
objected,  "This  decision  quoted  from 
was  made  in  reference  to  a  diamond 
ring,  a  purchase  very  different  from 
that  of  a  child's  cheap  jacket." 

Mr.  Lex  replied:  "The  principle  is 
the  same,  and  should  apply  here. 
Besides,  I  gave  my  wife  no  authority  to 
make  this  purchase  and,  in  fact,  had 
really  forbidden  her.  The  merchant 
did  not  show  any  authority;  and  as  'a 
tradesman  who  sells  goods  to  the  wife 
upon  credit  of  her  husband  takes  the 
burden  of  proof  of  showing  such 
authority'  (4)  I  am  not  liable.  Only  I, 
the  father,  the  legal  guardian  of  the 
children,  should  decide  upon  such 
matters."  The  Justice  was  a  stickler 


1 8  Mr.  Lex 

for  legal  points,  and  so  decided  in  Mr. 
Lex's  favor. 

But  the  dry-goods  firm  now  turned 
on  Mrs.  Lex  and  threatened  her  with 
arrest  for  obtaining  the  cloak  under 
false  pretenses.  Jennie,  who  was 
in  tears,  begged  them  not  to  ar- 
rest her  mother,  and  became  so 
frightened  that  she  stripped  off  the 
modest  jacket  and  handed  it  over  to  a 
representative  of  the  firm. 

Mrs.  Lex  did  not  try  to  buy  any 
more  clothes,  and  her  husband  did  not 
let  her  forget  that  his  choice  must  pre- 
vail. She  thus  had  another  lesson  con- 
cerning the  legal  status  of  mother  and 
child.  She  discovered  that  it  was  very 
different  from  that  of  father  and 
child. 

Mr.  Lex  devised  unusual  and  humili- 
ating punishments  for  the  children,  and 
grew  angry  when  his  wife  expostulated. 
He  showed  her  that  the  Supreme  Court 
ot  Illinois  had  said  in  relation  to  the 
punishment  of  a  child,  "The  authority 
to  govern  must  rest  in  some  one,  and 
the  law  has  placed  that  power  in  the 


Mr.  Lex  19 

hands  of  the  father  as  the  head  of  the 
family."  (5)  So  Mrs.  Lex  tried  to  sub- 
mit. 

About  this  time  the  father  began  to 
be  interested  in  the  spiritual  welfare  of 
his  children,  and  directed  them  to  go 
no  longer  to  the  neighboring  Presby- 
terian church,  which  they  had  always 
attended,  but  to  go  to  the  Adventist's 
church  two  miles  away.  They  all  ob- 
jected, but  to  no  avail. 

He  explained:  "Choosing the  church 
where  you  worship  is  the  privilege  of 
your  legal  guardian,  which  position  I 
alone  hold.  No  one  else  has  the  right 
to  interfere. " 

Who  dared  to  contradict  this  ex- 
lawyer?  Besides,  he  was  right.  So,  when 
they  went,  they  had  to  go  to  the  church 
of  his  choosing,  which  was  no  light 
cross,  considering  the  clothing  they 
wore. 

He  also  insisted  on  periodic  family 
dosings  of  sulphur  and  molasses,  and  in 
spite  of  his  wife's  objections  prescribed 
for  the  children  certain  injurious  articles 
of  diet,  declaring  that  the  law  laid  on 


20  Mr.  Lex 

him  the  duty  of  nurturing  his  children, 
and  that  these  things  were  needed  by 
the  children  for  their  nurture.  Mrs.  Lex 
wanted  the  children  to  wear  flannel  in 
winter,  but  he  said  they  must  be 
toughened. 

Little  Daisy  had  always  been  delicate, 
and  this  winter  she  coughed.  Rubbers 
might  have  protected  her  feet,  but  the 
father  would  not  buy  rubbers,  "because 
they  make  the  feet  perspire."  One 
cold,  damp  Sunday  he  took  her  walking 
without  rubbers  and  of  course  without 
flannels.  That  night  she  had  croup. 
Mrs.  Lex  begged  her  husband  to  call  a 
physician,  but  he  said  Daisy  did  not 
need  a  doctor,  and  he  as  her  legal 
guardian  would  not  allow  one  to  be 
called. 

So  Mrs.  Lex  dared  not  call  one ;  and  be- 
sides she  had  no  money  and  she  remem- 
bered the  cloak  episode.  She  tried  all 
the  home  remedies  but  with  little  effect. 
By  the  next  morning  Mr.  Lex  made 
up  his  mind  to  call  a  doctor,  who  ap- 
peared only  in  time  to  see  little  Daisy 
gasping  her  last. 


Mr.  Lex  21 

You  can  imagine  the  grief  of  the 
mother,  and  as  she  was  human  she  did 
reproach  the  father  and  told  him  he 
was  responsible.  He  said,  "It  is  a  mys- 
terious dispensation  of  Providence.  I 
have  often  been  sicker  myself  and 
pulled  through,  and  I  had  expected 
Daisy  would.  If  I  had  called  a  physi- 
cian quicker  she  might  have  died  soon- 
er Physicians  use  poisons  half  the 
time,  anyway.  It  will  always  be  a  com- 
fort to  me  that  I  have  kept  the  law  and 
have  chosen  for  this  child  what  I  con- 
sidered best." 

Cousin  Jane,  a  widow,  had  a  cemetery 
lot  at  Graceland,  and  offered  to  give 
them  a  portion  in  which  to  lay  the  lit- 
tle body.  Mrs.  Lex  thankfully  accept- 
ed her  generosity,  for  this  would  be  so 
near  she  could  occasionally  visit  the 
spot.  But  Mr.  Lex  was  astonished  at 
his  wife's  presumption.  He  said,  "Do 
you  suppose  the  law  gives  you  the  right 
to  select  the  burial  place  for  my  child? 
I  am  the  guardian  of  that  child,  alive 
or  dead,  and  I  shall  take  her  to  Oak- 
woods.  " 


22  Mr.  Lex 

The  mother  pleaded  that  she  and  the 
children  could  not  visit  the  grave  there, 
and  begged  that  Cousin  Jane's  offer  be 
accepted.  She  even  went  to  see  the 
Justice  of  the  Peace  and  asked  why  she 
could  not  have  the  body  buried  as  she 
wished,  near  home.  The  Justice  sym- 
pathized with  her,  but  said  her  husband 
had  the  right  to  bury  the  body  of  the 
child  where  he  chose,  as  he  was  the 
legal  guardian  of  the  child's  person.  In 
what  a  bitter  school  was  she  learning 
about  the  legal  status  of  mother  and 
child! 

Her  big  boy  John  was  the  next  one 
about  whom  she  worried.  He  was  near- 
ing  sixteen,  and  was  shooting  up  into  a 
tall  lad.  He  was  busy  all  the  time  in  the 
store,  and  Mrs.  Lex  urged  her  husband 
to  give  him  less  of  the  heavy  work  un- 
suitable for  a  growing  boy.  She  thought 
he  ought  not  to  lift  heavy  barrels  of 
flour  and  sugar.  Mr.  Lex  again  re- 
minded her  that  such  matters  were  be- 
yond her  control,  for  he,  the  father, 
had  the  authority  to  designate  his  son's 
duties.  One  day  John  grew  suddenly 


Mr.  Lex  23 

pale  when  lifting  one  of  these  barrels, 
and  his  mother,  who  was  at  the  store 
getting  the  day's  supply  of  groceries, 
flew  to  his  side  and  asked  the  trouble. 
"Something  seems  to  have  given  way," 
he  faintly  said,  and  Dr.  Jones,  who  hap- 
pened in  at  the  time,  examined  him  and 
said  that  the  severe  strain  had  injured 
John  internally  so  that  he  could  never 
again  do  heavy  manual  labor. 

It  is  not  necessary  to  describe  their 
respective  feelings  nor  the  father's  legal 
quotations  nor  the  mother's  despair, 
A  few  weeks  later,  when  John  was  bet- 
ter, though  he  never  could  be  cured, 
his  mother  defied  the  father  sufficiently 
to  go  to  a  small  dry-goods  store,  where 
she  secured  for  John  a  place  as  cashier 
at  five  dollars  a  week.  The  business 
manager  was  an  old  friend. 

There  was  grumbling  from  the  father, 
but  he  relented  sufficiently  on  payday 
to  collect  John's  wages.  The  proprie- 
tor had  intended  to  pay  John,  but  the 
father  explained  that  John  was  only  a 
minor  and  that,  under  the  law,  his  wages 
belonged  to  his  father.  So  for  some 


24  Mr.  Lex 

weeks  he  collected  five  dollars  per 
week,  justified  by  the  consciousness  that 
he  was  living  up  to  the  law.  Later  the 
dry-goods  firm  made  a  rule  not  to  pay 
wages  until  a  month  had  passed,  and  so 
twenty  dollars  of  John's  unpaid  wages 
accumulated,  when  the  lad  was  dis- 
missed to  lessen  expenses. 

Mr.  Lex  was  having  a  slight  attack 
of  rheumatism  which  had  kept  him  at 
home  several  days,  and  Mrs.  Lex  did 
not  want  to  arouse  his  unusually  irrita- 
ble temper.  So  she  asked  the  dry- 
goods  firm  for  the  twenty  dollars  John 
had  earned,  but  was  refused.  The  fam- 
ily needed  this  money  sadly,  and  in  her 
perplexity  she  went  in  to  see  the  near- 
est lawyer,  who  said  she  should  sue  the 
firm  for  the  money.  She  began  suit. 
The  matter  came  before  the  same  Jus- 
tice who  presided  at  the  cloak  trial.  It 
was  proved  that  the  dry-goods  firm 
owed  twenty  dollars  for  the  services 
rendered  by  John,  and  that  she  was  his 
mother. 

The  attorney  asked  her,  "Are  you 
widowed  or  divorced  or  deserted?"  She 


Mr.  Lex  25 

said,  "No,  my  husband  is  at  our  home 
a  few  blocks  distant." 

Then  the  attorney  argued  as  follows: 
"The  father  of  this  minor,  his  guardian, 
is  the  only  one  entitled  to  collect  John's 
wages.  (6)  Even  a  step-father  has  a 
right  to  a  minor's  services  before  the 
mother.  (7)  It  is  only  when  the  father 
is  divorced  or  dead  (8)  or  incapacitated 
by  insanity  (9)  or  has  abandoned  his 
family  (10)  that  the  mother  can  take  his 
position." 

The  Justice,  in  the  face  of  this  correct 
legal  statement,  could  do  no  less  than 
decide  that,  as  Mrs.  Lex  was  not  the 
boy's  guardian,  she  was  not  entitled  to 
his  wages  and  must  pay  the  costs  of 
the  suit.  He  added  kindly,  however, 
that  he  was  sorry  for  her  but  that 
law,  not  pity,  must  guide  him  in  his  de- 
cisions. 

This  was  another  lesson  in  relation  to 
the  legal  status  of  mother  and  child. 

The  condition  of  her  daughter  Mary 
now  began  to  distress  the  mother. 
Mary  was  troubled,  and  was  very  differ- 
ent from  the  happy  girl  of  a  few  months 


26  Mr.  Lex 

ago,  but  she  gave  no  reason  for  the 
change.  Young  as  she  was,  she  had 
frequently  helped  in  the  store;  and 
there,  away  from  her  mother's  watchful 
eye,  an  evil  man  had  often  talked  and 
laughed  with  Mary  and  had  then  walked 
home  with  her  after  the  store  closed 
at  eight  in  the  evening. 

It  was  the  old  story.  He  pre- 
tended to  love  her,  and,  as  she  had  none 
too  much  love  from  her  irritable  father 
and  weary  mother,  to  her  affectionate 
heart  the  love  proffered  by  this  hand- 
some man  of  twice  her  years  was  very 
welcome.  She  had  never  been  warned 
or  instructed  by  the  unthinking  mother, 
and  it  was  an  easy  task  for  the  skillful 
villain  to  make  her  his  victim;  then 
he  suddenly  ceased  talking  of  love  and 
ceased  coming  to  see  her. 

At  last  Mary  told  her  mother.  Mrs. 
Lex  was  agonized.  She  could  scarcely 
believe  that  Mary  was  approaching 
maternity.  Mary,  not  yet  fifteen,  still 
in  short  dresses,  with  two  braids  down 
her  back!  Mary,  only  yesterday  play- 
ing with  dolls,  now  under  the  shadow 


Mr.  Lex  27 

of  the  gravest  responsibility  and  the 
most  cruel  shame! 

Mrs.  Lex  dreaded  to  tell  her  husband, 
but,  knowing  his  profound  respect  for 
law,  she  felt  sure  there  must  be  some  pun- 
ishment for  this  great  wrong.  She  went 
to  the  Criminal  Court  Building  to  see 
the  State's  Attorney,  and  asked  if  he 
could  not  send  the  villain  to  the  peni- 
tentiary. He  asked  Mary's  age  at  the 
time  of  the  wrong.  She  had  just  passed 
the  anniversary  of  her  fourteenth  birth- 
day. 

"That's  bad,"  he  said.  "Girls  over 
fourteen  are  considered  by  our  law- 
makers old  enough  to  consent  to  their 
own  ruin,  (n)  Villains  know  this,  take 
advantage  of  the  law  and  the  girls'  ig- 
norance, and  as  a  result  our  hospitals 
have  many  mothers  under  fifteen.  But 
did  he  use  violence?  Was  this  done 
'forcibly  and  against  her  will'?  (12)  If 
so,  the  wrong  would  be  called  rape,  and 
he  might  be  sent  to  Joliet  to  the  peni- 
tentiary for  a  year  or  two,  as  he  could 
if  she  had  been  under  fourteen." 

Mrs.  Lex  replied:     "He  did  not  use 


28  Mr.  Lex 

physical  force  but  the  persuasion  of  a 
lying,  treacherous  tongue." 

The  State's  Attorney  then  read  to  her 
out  of  an  old  law  book  that  a  woman 
has  hands  with  which  to  beat,  nails 
with  which  to  scratch,  teeth  with  which 
to  bite,  feet  with  which  to  kick,  and  a 
voice  with  which  to  make  an  outcry, 
and  should  she  fail  to  use  all  these 
natural  weapons  of  defense  to  the  ut- 
most, she  would  not  be  presumed  to 
have  objected  seriously  to  her  own 
ruin  but  to  have  consented,  and  the 
wrong  would  not  be  a  crime,  not  a  peni- 
tentiary offense.  Alas,  Mary  had  not 
been  taught  to  fight;  she  was  no  Ama- 
zon; she  was  only  a  loving,  gentle,  lady- 
like little  girl. 

The  State's  Attorney  was  a  busy 
man,  and  Mrs.  Lex  was  but  one  of 
many  mothers  with  such  tales;  but  he 
sympathized  with  her,  and  took  time 
to  advise  her  that  the  man  would  be 
liable  in  an  action  in  bastardy  and,  if 
proved  guilty,  might  be  compelled  to  pay 
as  much  as  five  hundred  and  fifty  dol- 
lars during  the  next  ten  years.  (13) 


Mr.  Lex  29 

But  he  added  that  sometimes  jurors  did 
not  allow  five  hundred  and  fifty  dollars, 
as  they  were  men  and  might  be  ex- 
pected to  have  a  little  sympathy  for  an 
erring  brother  man.  Then  two  hun- 
dred or  three  hundred  dollars  was  all 
that  would  be  paid.  These  payments 
were  not  supposed  to  be  for  punish- 
ment but  only  for  the  support  of  the 
child.  If  the  child  died,  the  payments 
would  be  stopped.  (14)  The  sum  of 
one  hundred  dollars  would  be  paid  the 
first  year  and  fifty  dollars  each  succeed- 
ing year;  or  if  the  whole  sum  was  less 
than  five  hundred  and  fifty  dollars,  the 
payments  would  be  proportionately 
smaller.  This  would  be  the  father's 
only  contribution  to  the  support  of  the 
child.  (15)  "No  father,"  continued  the 
State's  Attorney,  "is  obliged  to  support 
an  illegitimate  child  except  to  the  ex- 
tent of  this  allowance.  (16)  An  illegiti- 
mate child  cannot  even  inherit 
property  from  his  father.  (61)  The 
rest  of  the  funds  necessary  to  sup- 
port the  illegitimate  child  must  come 
from  the  mother,  and  he  can  inherit 


30  Mr.  Lex 

property  only  through  the  mother.  If 
the  child  should  be  an  idiot  or  infirm  of 
body  and  thus  be  too  helpless  to  sup- 
port himself,  the  mother's  liability  for 
his  support  would  continue  after  he 
became  of  age  up  to  the  time  of  his 
death,  when  the  funeral  expenses  must 
be  paid  by  her." 

"However,  Mrs.  Lex,"  said  the 
State's  Attorney,  "you  might  get  more 
money  out  of  the  man  if  you  should 
sue  him  for  damages  resulting  from  loss 
of  the  daughter's  services.  Then  you 
need  not  trouble  with  a  proceeding  in 
bastardy."  The  State's  Attorney 
recommended  that,  if  she  began  such  a 
suit,  she  should  employ  young  Smith, 
an  honest,  hardworking  lawyer,  who 
would  not  be  bought  off. 

Mrs.  Lex  said  that  if  the  man  could 
not  be  sent  to  the  penitentiary  it  was  a 
shame,  but  that  no  money  could 
right  the  wrong  done  Mary,  and  she 
would  scorn  to  ask  for  it.  Later  she 
remembered  his  advice,  but  now  she 
awaited  the  future  in  despair.  In  a  few 
weeks  Mr.  Lex  found  out  his  daugh- 


Mr.  Lex  31 

ter's  condition  and  his  anger  was 
frightful.  He  stormed  and  raved  and 
turned  Mary  out  on  the  street;  and 
when  Mrs.  Lex  begged  to  have  her 
stay,  he  locked  Mrs.  Lex  in  her  room. 

He  told  her  no  law  compelled  him 
to  keep  an  obnoxious  child  under  his 
own  roof,  especially  when  she  was  past 
the  age  of  twelve  years.  (17)  He 
might  be  made  liable  for  her  support, 
perhaps,  but  he  was  not  obliged  to 
keep  her  at  home. 

Poor  Mary  tottered  along  the  street, 
scarcely  seeing  where  she  was,  and 
went  right  into  the  arms  of  Cousin  Jane, 
she  who  had  offered  the  cemetery  lot 
at  the  time  of  the  death  of  Daisy. 
Cousin  Jane  had  her  own  little  cottage 
on  a  side  street  about  two  blocks  away, 
where  for  years  she  had  done  plain 
sewing  for  several  wealthy  families 
near  Lincoln  Park.  She  took  Mary 
home  with  her,  notified  Mrs.  Lex  next 
morning  as  to  Mary's  whereabouts,  and 
said  she  would  give  the  poor  girl  a  shel- 
ter. Mrs.  Lex  was  very  grateful. 
She  was  troubled,  however,  as  to  how 


32  Mr.  Lex 

the  expenses  could  be  borne  during 
Mary's  approaching  sickness.  Cousin 
Jane  really  could  not  afford  to  do 
everything. 

Then  Mrs.  Lex  remembered  what  the 
State's  Attorney  had  said  about  dam- 
ages. If  she  had  a  few  hundred  dollars, 
she  could  pay  Cousin  Jane  for  actual 
outlays  and  be  indebted  to  her  only  for 
her  great  kindness  of  heart.  So  Cousin 
Jane  was  authorized  to  employ  Lawyer 
Smith,  who  was  recommended  by  the 
State's  Attorney,  and  he  sued  the  se- 
ducer for  damages  in  the  name  of  Mrs. 
Lex,  the  mother. 

We  pass  briefly  over  the  occurrences 
of  the  next  year.  Mary's  baby  was 
born  before  she  was  fifteen,  and  Mary 
stayed  on  with  Cousin  Jane,  helping 
with  the  sewing.  Mr.  Lex  never  saw 
or  asked  about  her,  and  Mrs.  Lex  said 
nothing.  When  he  heard  about  the  suit 
he  told  Mrs.  Lex  she  would  be  sorry 
for  it,  and  she  was,  later. 

Young  Smith  rushed  the  case  to  trial 
and,  to  the  astonishment  of  almost  every 
one,  got  a  verdict  for  twelve  hundred 


Mr.  Lex  33 

dollars.  Now  Cousin  Jane  could  be 
paid,  they  thought.  But  the  angry  de- 
fendant insisted  upon  appealing  the 
case,  his  attorney  contending  that  twelve 
hundred  dollars  was  a  preposterous 
amount;  as  Justice  Gummere,  of  New 
Jersey,  had  held  that  one  dollar  would  be 
sufficiently  large  damages  for  the  loss 
of  a  child,  and  Judge  Ferris,  of  Ohio, 
had  held  that  children  were  not  assets 
but  liabilities. 

In  an  unusually  short  time  the  Appel- 
late Court  decision  came.  In  the  opin- 
ion, the  Court  said:  "This  sort  of  an 
action  is  based  on  the  theory  that 
Mary's  ability  to  labor  has  been  dam- 
aged through  the  seduction,  and  this  is  a 
wrong  done  to  the  one  who  is  entitled 
to  her  services  or  wages,  the  father  and 
not  the  mother  (18).  The  father  has 
the  exclusive  right  of  action.  Not  even 
the  daughter  herself  could  maintain  an 
action  for  her  own  seduction.  Even 
when  a  father  has  turned  his  daughter 
out  on  account  of  pregnancy,  he  is  held 
to  be  the  proper  person  to  bring  suit. 
(19)  From  the  year  1842  (20)  our 


34  Mr.  Lex 

highest  courts  have  upheld  the  right  of 
the  father  to  sue  for  damages  resulting 
from  the  loss  of  his  daughter's  services 
through  seduction  (21).  The  Supreme 
Court  has  affirmed  the  right  of  a  near 
relative  of  an  orphan,  the  right  of  a 
master  or  a  guardian  (22),  but  has  nev- 
er yet  sanctioned  a  mother's  bringing 
such  action,  and  never  would  if  it  did 
not  affirmatively  appear  that  there  was 
no  father  entitled  to  the  daughter's  ser- 
vices. A  case  exactly  similar  came  be- 
fore this  court  (23)  in  which  the  court 
said:  'It  was  therefore  incumbent  upon 
plaintiff  in  the  court  below  to  prove  that, 
at  the  time  of  the  alleged  seduction,  she 
was  entitled  to  or  had  the  right  to  com- 
mand her  daughter's  services  to  her 
own  use.  Ball  vs.  Bruce,  21  111.,  161; 
Doyle  vs.  Jessup,  29  111.,  460.  This  we 
think  she  failed  to  do.  The  presump- 
tion is  that  the  daughter  was  born  in 
lawful  wedlock  and  that  her  father  is 
still  alive.  If  so,  the  right  of  action  is 
in  the  father  and  not  in  the  mother. 
The  right  of  the  mother  to  the  custody 
of  her  minor  child  does  not  arise  during 


Mr.  Lex  35 

the  lifetime  of  the  father  unless  so 
ordered  by  a  court  in  a  proper  case.' 
Hobson  vs.  Fullerton,  4  111.  App.,  284. 
The  decision  in  this  Hobson  case  is 
decisive  in  the  case  at  bar." 

The  Court  also  said:  "  Sympathy 
might  lead  us  to  decide  differently,  but 
we  are  bound  by  law  and  precedent. 
'It  has  long  been  considered  a  stand- 
ing reproach  to  the  common  law  that 
it  furnished  no  means  to  punish  the 
seducer  of  female  innocence  and  virtue, 
except  through  the  fiction  of  supposing 
the  daughter  was  a  servant  to  her  par- 
ent and  that  in  consequence  of  her 
seduction  the  parent  had  lost  some  of 
her  services  as  a  menial.  It  is  high  time 
this  reproach  should  be  wiped  out/ 
Anderson  vs.  Ryan,  8  111.,  588.  Some 
States  have  made  seduction  a  criminal 
offense,  and  have  thus  shown  a  proper 
horror  of  such  great  wrong.  But  in 
Illinois  there  seems  little  redress  for 
such  evil.  It  is  considered  merely  a 
misdemeanor,  a  misbehavior,  a  breach 
of  manners.  Even  the  bastardy  act, 
which  provides  for  the  payment  of 


36  Mr.  Lex 

money  for  the  support  of  the  child,  is 
not  the  imposition  of  a  penalty  for  any 
immoral  or  illegal  act  but  a  civil  rem- 
edy." (24). 

The  Judges  evidently  recognized  the 
injustice  of  such  a  decision  even  if  con- 
vinced of  its  legal  correctness,  for  in 
conclusion  they  said,  "  Judges  can 
merely  enforce  laws  as  they  are.  Until 
the  Legislature  of  Illinois  makes  some 
change,  such  wrongs  will  often  go 
unpunished.  There  is  now,  in  this  case, 
no  punishment  for  the  wrongdoer.  He 
cannot  be  punished  for  rape,  for  the 
wrong  was  not  done  forcibly  or  against 
her  will,  and  Mary  was  over  fourteen. 
Neither  she  nor  her  mother  has  a  right 
to  bring  this  suit,  and  the  father  re- 
fuses. It  is  now  too  late  to  begin  pro- 
ceedings in  bastardy.  This  is  a  case 
where  there  is  clearly  a  wrong  but  no 
remedy." 

Mr.  Lex  had  been  very  angry  that 
his  wife  had  anything  to  do  with  "  that 
abandoned  girl,"  as  he  called  Mary; 
and  he  now  rejoiced  in  her  final  defeat 
because  it  must  impress  on  her  forcibly 


Mr.  Lex  37 

her  own  powerlessness  and  his  full 
authority  over  their  children. 

The  State's  Attorney  wrote, asking  her 
to  call  at  his  office.  When  he  saw  her 
he  expressed  great  regret  that  the  case 
had  terminated  so  unsuccessfully.  He 
said,  "If  only  you  had  told  me  your 
husband  was  living  I  should  never  have 
advised  you  to  begin  proceedings,  but 
I  thought  you  were  a  widow.  I  have 
watched  this  matter  with  great  interest, 
and  now  almost  feel  as  though  I  were 
responsible  for  your  failure  and  the 
heavy  legal  expenses  incurred.  I,  too, 
have  daughters,  and  it  cuts  me  to  the 
heart  to  think  of  what  you  and  your 
little  girl  have  suffered.  I  have  here 
one  hundred  dollars  which  I  want  you 
to  accept  for  legal  expenses  or  other 
debts  incurred  through  Mary's  trouble. 
Do  not  count  it  a  gift  but  the  collection 
of  a  fine  which  I  have  imposed  on  my- 
self for  belonging  to  a  sex  which  has 
wrought  such  misery." 

The  State's  Attorney  cleared  his 
throat,  turned  his  back,  and  asked  his 
clerk  to  show  her  out  before  she  could 


38  Mr.  Lex 

collect  words  in  which  to  express  her 
gratitude  at  this  gift.  He  had  so  placed 
the  matter  before  her  that  she  could 
accept  the  money  without  humiliation. 

She  took  the  money  to  young  Smith 
to  apply  on  his  bill,  but  he  said,  "I  like 
to  try  cases  just  for  the  experience  it 
gives  me;  and  I  have  learned  so  much 
during  the  pendency  of  the  suit  that  I 
feel  that  you  owe  me  nothing.  I  have 
settled  for  the  printing  of  abstract  and 
briefs  for  the  Appellate  Court  and  for 
the  costs,  just  for  the  experience  too, 
and  now  here  is  a  receipt  in  full." 

Mrs.  Lex  said  he  was  too  generous, 
but  he  said,  "It  is  only  a  form  of  sel- 
fishness. Perhaps  my  little  baby  girl 
may  need  a  friend  some  day,  and 
this  method  will  be  surer  to  secure 
friends  for  her  than  accumulating 
government  bonds.  I  wish  you  to 
feel  that  you  and  Mary  ought  to  be 
ready  to  help  my  daughter  or  any 
other  troubled  girl  if  in  need/' 

Mrs.  Lex  said  she  would  never  forget 
his  generosity  nor  that  of  the  State's 
Attorney,  for  to  her  they  would  ever  be 


Mr.  Lex  39 

the  ideal,  nineteenth  century,  chivalrous 
gentlemen.  This  made  young  Smith 
look  so  red  and  fierce  that  the  office  boy, 
at  a  distance,  thought  he  was  angry; 
but  Smith  controlled  himself,  and  the 
office  boy  heard  nothing  violent. 

Mrs.  Lex's  sad  heart  was  comforted 
by  the  sympathy  of  these  two  noble 
men,  who  tried  to  show  her  kindness 
because  the  law  showed  no  justice.  She 
flew  about  with  the  money  to  physi- 
cian, nurse,  and  druggist,  and  every  bill 
was  paid  except  the  debt  they  owed 
Cousin  Jane.  That  would  never  be 
paid  now,  for  Cousin  Jane  had  died  a 
few  days  before,  and  their  best  friend 
was  gone. 

When  her  will  was  read  it  appeared 
that  she  had  no  nearer  relatives  and 
that  she  had  devised  the  tiny  cottage 
to  Mary,  and  had  given  all  her  money 
savings,  four  hundred  dollars,  to  Mrs. 
Lex.  Young  Smith  had  made  the  will, 
and  had  probably  encouraged  Cousin 
Jane  to  such  a  disposition  of  her  estate. 

Mary  had  become  a  skillful  needle- 
woman, and  she  continued  to  hold  all 


40  Mr.  Lex 

Cousin  Jane's  customers.  So  she  and 
her  baby  were  sure  of  food  and  shelter. 

Mrs.  Lex  was  grateful  for  the  four 
hundred  dollars,  for  she  knew  the  many 
needs  that  the  coming  winter  would 
bring  which  she  could  now  supply. 
There  would  be  flannels  and  warm 
shoes  for  every  one  and  soft  new 
clothes  for  the  tiny  little  stranger  she 
was  expecting  in  her  own  family;  and 
perhaps  she  could  hire  the  washing 
and  ironing  done  a  few  weeks  till  she 
was  strong.  Mr.  Lex  asked  her  for  the 
money,  and  she  refused  to  give  it  to 
him  as  she  had  a  legal  right  to  do. 

But  he  spread  abroad  the  news  of  her 
legacy,  and  she  was  requested  by 
Messrs.  Snuff  &  Co.  to  pay  her  hus- 
band's tobacco  bills;  by  the  downtown 
store  to  pay  for  that  horrible  pink  hat 
of  Mary's,  bought  three  years  before; 
by  the  druggist  to  pay  for  medicines 
bought  and  used  by  Mr.  Lex,  and  by 
various  other  creditors  to  pay  bills  in- 
curred by  her  husband  for  family  ex- 
penses, including  a  bill  for  trousers  for 
himself. 


Mr.  Lex  41 

She  refused  to  pay  and  was  sued. 
Every  creditor  got  a  judgment  against 
her.  It  was  urged  that  these  items 
were  all  family  expenses  and  necessi- 
ties. She  protested  that  tobacco  for 
her  husband  was  not  a  family  expense 
nor  a  necessity.  But  Snuff  &  Company 
called  in  a  dozen  men  from  the  street 
who  all  swore  that  tobacco  was  a  ne- 
cessity and  that  it  was  an  ordinary  fam- 
ily expense.  The  Justice  said:  "The 
wife's  liability  for  family  expenses  is 
not  limited  to  necessities,  it  applies  to 
'all  expenses  of  the  family  without  qual- 
ification as  to  kind  or  amount,  and  does 
not  depend  upon  the  wealth,  habits,  or 
social  position  of  the  party.  The  hus- 
band is  the  head  of  the  family.  He 
determines  primarily  what  is  needed 
for  it'  (25).  Mrs.  Lex  will  be  liable 
out  of  her  own  funds  for  the  tobacco." 
(26) 

She  objected  to  paying  for  the  med- 
icines, but  the  Justice  told  her  that  the 
Appellate  Court  (27)  had  decided  that 
a  wife  must  pay  for  her  husband's  medi- 
cines. 


42  Mr.  Lex 

She  objected  to  paying  for  John's 
green  clothes, — so  much  abhorred, — and 
said  she  never  selected  them.  The 
Justice  said  it  made  no  difference.  "The 
wife  is  not  expected  to  choose  family 
supplies.  The  husband  determines  pri- 
marily what  is  needed  for  the  family. 
He  may  buy  and  contract  debts  all  in 
his  own  name  for  the  support  of  the 
family.  It  is  not  necessary  that  his 
wife's  name  be  known  or  her  consent 
be  given  to  bind  her  for  goods  pur- 
chased by  him  for  the  family  or  for  an 
individual  member  of  it.  The  Appel- 
late Court  has  twice  (28)  passed 
directly  on  this  question.  The  clothes 
are  family  expenses,  and  she  must  pay 
for  them." 

Her  lawyer,  young  Smith,  urged  that 
John's  wages,  the  twenty  dollars  which 
had  been  unpaid  for  three  years,  should 
be  set  off  and  allowed  against  this 
demand.  Surely  John's  wages  ought  to 
pay  for  his  clothes. 

But  the  Justice  explained,  "While  the 
father  lives  at  home  he  alone  can  collect  a 
minor's  wages;  and  as  he  is  not  a  party 


Mr.  Lex  43 

to  this  suit  nor  claiming  this  set-off,  the 
set-off  will  not  be  allowed.  But  a  special 
statute  (29)  makes  both  mother  and 
father  liable  for  a  child's  support,  and  a 
creditor  can  sue  either  one,  even  the 
one  who  is  not  eligible  to  receive  the 
minor's  wages.  This  statute  is  a  step 
in  the  right  direction,  recognizing  the 
mother's  responsibility  in  the  home,  as 
a  partner  who  must  bear  her  share  of 
the  burden  of  family  expense.  Perhaps 
the  law  should  also  allow  her  a  part- 
ner's right  to  a  share  in  family  funds 
with  which  she  might  pay  such  ex- 
penses. But  as  it  does  not  at  present  I 
can  only  enforce  law  as  it  is,  not  as  it 
should  be." 

"In  others  words,"  said  Smith  scorn- 
fully, "a  mother  is  eligible  to  all  duty, 
all  burden,  but  ineligible  to  receive 
benefit  in  the  shape  of  wages  and  ineli- 
gible to  direct  the  expenditure  of  her 
own  funds." 

Smith  protested  that  she  ought 
not  to  pay  for  her  husband's  trousers,  as 
they  were  of  no  use  to  her.  But  the 
Justice  said  it  had  been  frequently  held 


44  Mr.  Lex 

that  a  wife  must  pay  for  her  husband's 
clothes.  (25) 

Smith  argued:  "This  four  hun- 
dred dollars  is  exempt,  the  statute 
providing  that  four  hundred  dollars 
worth  of  property  is  exempt."  But  the 
Justice  said,  "Only  one  hundred  dollars 
is  exempt  for  her,  a  wife,  as  the  three 
hundred  dollars  exemption  can  be 
claimed  only  by  the  head  of  the  family." 

(30) 

Smith  protested  that  Mrs.  Lex 
really  was  the  head  of  the  family,  as  all 
the  family's  funds  had  come  through  her 
and  because  she  owned  even  the  little 
store  in  which  Mr.  Lex  carried  on  the 
grocery. 

But  the  Justice  replied:  "Even  if  the 
business  were  the  wife's  and  the  husband 
acted  but  as  her  clerk,  'this  did  not  divest 
him  of  his  legal  functions  as  the  head  of 
the  family.  He  has  not  abdicated  nor 
forfeited  his  headship.  Nor  is  that 
question  to  be  determined  merely  by 
ascertaining  whether  he  or  she  contrib- 
uted the  greater  sum  to  the  support  of 
the  family.'  (31)  'There  was  no  notice 


Mr.  Lex  45 

that  any  anomalous  relations  existed  in 
the  family  constituting  the  wife  the  head 
of  the  family.  Where  the  wife  lives 
with  the  husband,  he  must  be  regarded 
as  the  head  of  the  family.'  (32)  Our 
Supreme  Court  made  this  statement  in 
a  case  where  the  wife  and  husband  and 
her  children  by  a  former  husband  lived 
together  on  the  wife's  premises,  where  all 
the  property  belonged  to  her.  Although 
in  reality  her  husband  was  living  with 
her,  still,  legally,  she  was  living  with 
him  and  he  was  the  head.  The  owner- 
ship of  property  makes  little  difference 
as  to  headship.  The  parent  seems  to  need 
no  other  qualification  than  that  of  mas- 
culinity to  make  him  head.  Mr.  Lex  has 
that.  He  is  the  head.  The  rule  is  that  the 
husband  is  the  head  of  the  family/'  (33) 
"In  case  of  the  husband's  insanity  (34) 
or  death  (35),  or  his  abandonment  of 
her  (36)  the  law  esteems  the  wife  the 
head.  As  Mr.  Lex  is  sane  and  living 
and  still  cleaving  to  his  family,  Mrs. 
Lex  cannot  be  the  head.  So  only  one 
hundred  dollars  is  exempt  from  the  ne- 
cessity of  paying  these  claims." 


46  Mr.  Lex 

So  the  three  hundred  dollars  was 
used  to  pay  for  the  tobacco  she  abomi- 
nated, the  clothing  she  never  had 
selected,  and  the  medicine  she  never  had 
used. 

These  lessons  as  to  the  legal  status 
of  mother  and  child  were  becoming  ex- 
pensive. 

A  few  weeks  after  this  little  Dora 
was  born,  and  the  poor  mother  had 
heart  and  mind  too  full  to  think  much 
about  law.  Besides,  another  grief  had 
come  to  her  through  her  daughter  Jen- 
nie. 

Some  time  before  this  Mr.  Lex  had 
decided  that  a  different  education 
was  needed  by  Jennie  that  that  afforded 
by  the  public  school,  and  so  he  sent 
her  to  a  certain  church  school,  where 
she  was  taught  deportment  and  em- 
broidery and  little  else.  Mrs.  Lex 
begged  him  not  to  send  Jennie  to  this 
school,  where  the  teaching  was  so  op- 
posed to  the  faith  in  which  the  family 
had  been  reared. 

Mr.  Lex  thundered  out,  "It  is  my 
duty  as  that  child's  guardian  to  select 


Mr.  Lex  ,     47 

her  school  and  to  decide  as  to  her  tui- 
tion, and  I  shall  not  be  deterred  by  your 
foolish  whims." 

So  Jennie  was  less  with  her  mother 
than  formerly  and  less  influenced  by 
her.  At  last,  when  she  was  nearly  four- 
teen years  old,  she  announced  that  she 
was  soon  to  be  married. 

Mrs.  Lex  told  her  that  she  was  too 
young,  that  the  lover  was  a  dissipated 
man,  and  that  it  could  never  be  allowed. 
Mr.  Lex,  hearing  the  discussion,  was  so 
annoyed  at  his  wife's  presuming  to  act 
as  though  she  had  authority  over  the 
girl,  that  he  declared:  "I  am  the  one  to 
give  or  refuse  consent  to  my  child's 
marriage  (37).  If  you  oppose  it,  that 
is  a  sure  sign  Jennie  ought  to  marry 
the  man,  and  I  will  consent.  I  shall 
be  glad  to  get  one  eater  out  of  the 
house,  now  that  you  have  so  improvi- 
dently  added  to  the  family  another 
daughter." 

So  Jennie,  with  her  father's  con- 
sent, was  married  on  her  fourteenth 
birthday.  If  she  had  waited  four  years 
until  she  was  eighteen,  she  need  not 


48  Mr.  Lex 

have  had  the  consent  of  either  parent 
or  guardian. 

How  bitter  to  Mrs.  Lex  was  this  les- 
son of  her  own  powerlessness  to  pro- 
hibit this  unfortunate  marriage!  Her 
husband's  consent  was  all  that  the  law 
required,  and  he  seemed  heedless  as  to 
the  great  responsibilities  and  burdens 
undertaken  by  his  little  fourteen-year- 
old  daughter,  now  a  wife.  Mrs.  Lex 
thought  the  State  ought  to  prohibit  en- 
tirely such  early  marriages,  and  that 
if  the  consent  of  any  parent  was  re- 
quired, a  mother,  who  knows  best  the 
peril  to  such  a  child  in  marriage,  should 
be  authorized  to  consent  or  prohibit  as 
as  well  as  the  father. 

Nothing  has  been  said  concerning  lit- 
tle Rob,  who  was  now  about  twelve 
years  old.  He  was  so  bright  that  his 
mother  thought  he  might  be  a  physician 
some  day.  She  had  lately  taken  a  board- 
er to  get  money  to  pay  for  Rob's  school 
clothes,  but  Mr.  Lex  collected  the 
money  from  the  boarder,  as  he  was  le- 
gally entitled  to  do,  (38)  and  said  that 
Rob  must  work  in  the  store;  that  he  had 


Mr.  Lex  49 

sent  him  to  school  for  sixteen  weeks 
already  this  year,  which  was  all  the  law 
required,  (39)  and  the  rest  of  the  year 
he  must  work.  Mrs.  Lex  was  glad 
enough  that  the  State  assumed  some 
control  over  the  child's  education,  but 
thought  the  required  time  was  too 
short,  and  she  looked  and  longed  for 
some  chance  for  Rob. 

Just  then  Providence  intervened  in 
the  form  of  another  relative.  Cousin 
Rose,  who  lived  in  Michigan,  wrote  to 
Mrs.  Lex,  saying  that  if  Rob  could  stay 
with  her  for  two  years  to  take  the  place 
of  a  son,  who  had  just  died,  he  could 
go  to  school  and  be  well  cared  for. 
Mr.  Lex  said  he  could  not  go.  Mrs. 
Lex  said  he  ought  to,  for  the  sake  of 
the  education  and  the  support.  She 
was  also  afraid  Rob  would  become 
a  loafer,  like  John  and  his  father, 
if  he  stayed  with  them,  while  in  the 
Michigan  home  with  her  cousin  he 
could  learn  to  be  an  intelligent,  indus- 
trious Christian  gentleman. 

Mary  now  advised  her  mother  to  send 
Rob  anyway.  So  she  asked  Mary  to  take 


50  Mr.  Lex 

him  to  Michigan,  but  Mr.  Lex  dis- 
covered Rob's  absence  the  day  of  their 
flight  and,  dashing  off,  grabbed  the  boy 
at  the  railway  station  just  before  he 
boarded  the  train,  and  took  him  home, 
meanwhile  calling  Mary  all  the  names 
which  he  felt  she  deserved,  and  telling 
her  never  to  come  near  his  family 
again.  But  Mary  was  not  easily  scared, 
for  he  had  already  done  his  worst  to 
her.  So  she  tried  the  plan  a  few  weeks 
later  and  this  time  successfully. 

Mr.  Lex  knew  that  his  wife  had  no 
legal  right  to  do  as  she  had  done,  for 
his  alone  was  the  right  to  decide  upon 
the  home  for  his  children,  but  he  was 
too  lazy  to  exert  himself  more  than  to 
swear  vengeance  and  threaten  that  by 
next  week  he  would  drag  Rob  home  by 
the  nape  of  his  neck,  but  he  didn't,  and 
Rob  was  safe. 

Little  Dora  during  this  time  had  not 
been  a  happy  baby.  Perhaps  her 
mother's  troubles  had  influenced  her 
prenatally  towards  sadness,  and  per- 
haps the  prevalent  irritation  at  home 
had  so  distressed  the  mother  that  Dora 
nursed  sorrow. 


Mr.  Lex  51 

Mr.  Lex  considered  her  an  unwel- 
come intruder,  and  said  she  cried  so 
much  he  could  not  sleep.  So  he  told 
his  wife  that  Dora  must  be  boarded  out 
somewhere;  that,  according  to  the 
theories  of  some  social  reformers, 
strangers  could  do  better  for  the  child 
than  the  mother.  He  said  that  Mrs. 
Lex  was  too  nervous  to  care  well  for  her 
and  that  tomorrow  he  would  take  her  to 
a  baby  farm  where  she  could  receive 
excellent  care  at  a  dollar  and  a  half  per 
week.  Mrs.  Lex  pleaded  that  Dora 
was  only  six  months  old  and  just  be- 
ginning her  first  summer,  when  it  would 
be  dangerous  to  put  her  on  artificial 
food.  "Just  let  her  stay  six  months 
longer.''  But  her  husband  said,  "No;" 
he  knew  what  was  best,  and  he  began  to 
tell  her  more  about  his  legal  rights. 
Tomorrow  the  child  must  be  ready  for 
the  baby  farm.  He  would  take  her  at 
noon. 

All  that  sad  night  Mrs.  Lex  debated 
as  to  what  was  her  duty.  Her  own  lack 
of  control  over  her  children  never 
seemed  more  unjust.  Mr.  Lex  chose 


52  Mr.  Lex 

the  food  and  clothes  for  the  children, 
punished  them,  medicated  them,  se- 
lected their  schools  and  church,  col- 
lected wages,  selected  the  burial  spot 
for  the  dead,  decided  about  the  duties 
of  the  living,  consented  to  marriage, 
and  now  wanted  to  tear  her  baby  away 
from  her.  His  guardianship  had  re- 
sulted so  injuriously  to  the  other  chil- 
dren that  she  feared  the  result  to  the 
baby.  John  would  never  again  be  strong, 
and  was  now  a  dissolute  loafer;  brave 
Mary,  driven  from  home,  worked  very 
hard  supporting  her  illegitimate  child; 
Jennie  had  a  drunken  husband  and  a 
helpless,  imbecile  baby;  and  Daisy  was 
in  her  grave.  Only  bright  Rob  was 
safe.  He  was  still  in  Michigan.  Why 
could  not  she  go  there  too?  Yes,  she 
would  go,  she  would  run  away  just  as 
soon  as  her  husband  left  for  the  store 
after  breakfast. 

She  got  money  from  Mary  for  the 
trip.  She  started,  but  found  that 
the  Michigan  Central  train  she  wanted 
to  take  did  not  leave  till  twelve 
o'clock.  So  she  waited.  Fatal  delay! 


Mr.  Lex  53 

She  saw  her  husband  enter  the  sta- 
tion with  an  officer  of  the  law.  She 
was  arrested  for  the  abduction  of  a 
child,  put  into  the  Harrison  Street  Po- 
lice Station,  and  the  baby  taken  from 
her.  She  sent  for  young  Mr.  Smith  and 
asked  what  this  horrible  charge  meant. 
He  explained  that  she  was  accused  of 
stealing  a  child  and  that,if  proved  guilty, 
the  maximum  punishment  was  confine- 
ment in  the  county  jail  one  year  and  a 
fine  of  two  thousand  dollars  (40). 

Next  morning  at  the  hearing  before 
the  magistrate,  Mrs.  Lex  admitted  that 
she  was  trying  to  take  Dora  out  of  the 
State,  but  urged  that  Dora  was  too 
young  to  be  put  on  artificial  food  and 
would  die  if  left  to  the  mercies  of  a 
baby  farmer.  Mrs.  Lex  was  much  ex- 
cited and  distressed. 

Mr.  Lex  calmly  and  in  correct  legal 
phraseology  explained  to  the  Court 
that  he,  her  father,  was  the  only  person 
who  had  the  right  to  select  the  child's 
home.  The  mother  could  not  have  that 
privilege. 

He  said:    "Although  Dora  is  young, 


54  Mr.  Lex 

courts  have  frequently  gone  so  far 
as  to  'take  nursing  infants  from  the 
arms  of  innocent  and  unexception- 
able mothers  and  place  them  in  the 
hands  of  fathers  to  be  reared  by  adul- 
teresses with  whom  the  fathers  were 
living/  (41)  because  the  father  is  the 
child's  natural  guardian  andflrima  facie 
entitled  to  custody.  (42)  A  father  is  en- 
titled to  the  custody,  nurture,  and  tuition 
of  his  child.  (43)  Even  if  Mrs.  Lex  had 
secured  a  divorce  from  me  for  my  own 
fault  and  had  been  granted  the  custody 
of  the  child,  this  would  not  give  her  ab- 
solute power  over  the  child.  She  would 
not  then  be  in  the  position  of  the  father. 
She  could  act  only  under  the  court's 
direction  as  any  other  appointed  guard- 
ian might.  Under  the  circumstances  of 
divorce,  even,  our  Supreme  Court  has 
said  when  the  mother  had  attempted  to 
take  the  child  out  of  the  State :  'This  can- 
not be  tolerated,  and  must  be  guarded 
against/  (44)  Many  circumstances 
might  curtail  the  mother's  guardianship 
under  order  of  court,  even  her  remar- 
riage (45).  But  a  father's  remarriage 


Mr.  Lex 55 

has  never  been  held  sufficient  to  divest 
him  of  guardianship." 

Mr.  Lex  concluded  with  this  surpris- 
ing bit  of  legal  information:  "Even  tak- 
ing Dora  to  ride  in  the  street  car  down 
to  the  station  contrary  to  my  desire  was 
illegal,  as  our  Supreme  Court  has  de- 
cided that  a  mother  has  no  authority  to 
give  permission  for  a  child  to  have  a  rider 
because  the  mother  is  not  entitled  to 
disposing  power  over  the  person  of  the 
child.  (46)  Of  course,  I  desire  to  show 
clearly  my  own  absolute  authority  over 
the  child,  but  I  also  intend  to  benefit 
my  child.  I  desire  to  separate  Dora 
and  her  mother,  as  my  wife  is  too  emo- 
tional to  bring  up  a  child." 

She  seemed  emotional  then.  She  was 
sobbing.  The  baby  too  seemed  emo- 
tional. Though  in  her  father's  arms, 
she  was  crying  vigorously  to  get  to  her 
mother. 

To  quiet  the  child  the  Police  Magis- 
trate allowed  Mrs.  Lex  to  take  her  for  a 
few  moments,  after  which  he  announced 
his  decision.  He  said: 

"The  law  is  clear  that  Mr.  Lex,  as  the 


56  Mr.  Lex 

natural  guardian  of  his  child,  is  entitled 
to  her  custody.  It  does  not  appear 
that  he  is  a  drunkard  or  licentious  or 
cruel  or  a  lunatic  or  unfit  to  care  for  her, 
and  even  if  he  was,this  Court  would  have 
no  authority  to  appoint  a  new  guardian 
to  act  in  the  place  of  him,  the  natural 
guardian.  Mrs.  Lex  is  legally  guilty  of 
abduction,  but  there  is  no  desire  to  make 
this  matter  unduly  severe  nor  to  subject 
her  to  the  heavy  penalty  incurred.  As 
there  is  no  objection,  the  charge  will  be 
changed  to  that  of  disorderly  conduct 
and  she  will  be  fined  one  dollar.  The 
child  must  go  to  the  place  selected  by 
the  father." 

Then  Mrs.  Lex,  instead  of  being 
grateful  for  the  small  fine,  was  guilty 
of  contempt  of  court;  for  she  vowed 
that  she  would  not  let  Dora  leave  her. 
She  said:  "That  is  a  cruel,  unjust  de- 
cision. No  one  would  be  guilty  of  so 
deciding  against  the  beasts  of  the  field 
or  the  fowls  of  the  air.  Who  would 
take  the  nursing  colt  from  his  mother 
and  give  him  to  his  father  to  rear,  say- 
ing the  father  was  his  natural  guardian? 


Mr.  Lex  57 

Who  would  take  the  brooding  mother 
bird  from  her  little  ones?  Better  be  a 
beast  or  bird  than  a  human  mother  if 
one  desires  justice.  Mr.  Lex  is  not  the 
natural  guardian  of  this  baby,  but  I,  the 
mother,  am.  Everything  this  child  is, 
I,  under  God,  made  her.  Everything 
she  possesses  I  gave  her." 

She  continued  to  speak  excitedly, 
her  voice  shrill  and  at  times  broken 
with  grief: 

"What  has  her  father,  he  whom  you 
call  her  natural  guardian,  done  for  her? 
Has  he  given  of  his  own  blood  and  bone 
and  muscle  to  form  her  body  and  to 
nourish  her  from  day  to  day,  diminish- 
ing to  just  that  extent  his  own  strength 
and  vigor?  Has  he  washed  and  dressed 
and  soothed  her  not  only  during  the 
day  but  through  the  night  as  well?  Not 
one  of  these  things  has  he  done,  but  Ir 
the  mother,  have  done  them  all.  What 
blasphemous  presumption  then  for  him 
to  claim  to  be  the  natural  guardian!  I 
am  the  God-ordained,  natural  guardian 
of  this  baby,  law  or  no  law.  This  is  a 
question  of  morals,  and  I  shall  not  let 


58  Mr.  Lex 

my  baby  go."  She  spoke  with  the  cour- 
age of  despair. 

The  Judge  seemed  strangely  moved, 
but  Mrs.  Lex  was  a  little  hysterical  and 
evidently  had  forgotten  that  the  Harri- 
son Street  Police  Court  was  a  court  not 
of  morals  but  of  law. 

Mr.  Lex,  however,  remembered  and 
pointed  to  the  section  of  the  statute 
giving  him  sole  control.  That  strength- 
ened the  Magistrate's  courage,  and  he 
directed  the  bailiffs  to  take  the  child. 
Then  ensued  a  distressing  struggle. 

Mrs.  Lex  clung  to  Dora  with  all  the 
force  of  her  weak  arms,  and  the  baby 
clung  to  her,  crying  with  fright.  It 
took  some  time  for  the  bailiffs  to  get 
the  child  away.  They  tried  to  be  gen- 
tle, and  did  not  want  to  tear  the  child 
into  pieces.  The  Judge  was  so  sympa- 
thetic he  wiped  his  eyes  and  did  not 
fine  her  for  contempt  of  court.  Neith- 
er did  he  fine  the  baby,  who  was  also 
vigorously  expressing  her  contempt  of 
court.  He  was  so  compassionate!  Al- 
most everyone  in  the  room  sympathized 
with  Mrs.  Lex.  The  flashily  dressed 


Mr.  Lex  59 

girls  from  Custom  House  Place  said 
they  were  glad  they  had  no  such  hus- 
bands; the  thieves  and  pickpockets 
waiting  their  turn,  the  professional  bail- 
ors, and  the  lawyers  all  showed  signs  of 
emotion.  A  stony-hearted  bootblack, 
whose  dirty  face  showed  several  streaks 
where  the  rare  tears  had  washed  away 
the  grime,  piped  up  indignantly,  "I'll 
give  my  pile  towards  buying  the  tar  for 
that  father  if  some  one  else  will  come 
down  with  the  feathers." 

But  the  law  was  on  the  side  of  Mr. 
Lex.  Sympathy  was  on  her  side,  yet 
it  was  not  then  sufficient  for  Mrs.  Lex. 
When  at  last  the  bailiffs  had  torn  the 
child  away  the  mother  fainted.  Her 
lessons  on  the  legal  status  of  mother 
and  child  were  wearing  on  her. 

Mr.  Lex  then  turned  the  baby  over  to 
the  representative  of  the  baby  farm, 
and  took  his  wife  home.  For  hours  she 
seemed  utterly  stunned,  but  rallied  a 
little  when,  next  day,  after  Mr.  Lex  had 
gone  to  the  store,  she  had  a  note  from 
Mary  asking  her  to  come  to  her  at 
once. 


60  Mr.  Lex 

What  miracle  greeted  her  eyes  ? 
There,  in  Mary's  little  cottage  with 
Mary  and  Mary's  child,  sat  Dora,  hun- 
gry Dora.  What  did  it  mean  ? 

Mary  explained  that  she  had  sat  in 
the  court  room  veiled  in  black,  had 
heard  the  decision,  had  followed  the 
baby  farmer  to  her  place,  and  soon  had 
appeared  in  the  back  yard,  where  a 
dozen  little  ones  were  wailing  in  chorus. 
When  the  attendant  stepped  inside, 
Mary  seized  Dora  and  was  in  the  alley 
before  the  attendant  again  appeared, 
and  Dora  had  been  with  Mary  all  night. 
11  Now  mother,"  she  said,  "  this  is  the 
safest  place  in  the  world  for  Dora. 
Father  hates  me  so  bitterly  he  never 
walks  on  this  street.  He  keeps  the  law 
and  makes  you  miserable.  I  am  going 
to  break  it  to  make  you  happy,  or 
rather  keep  a  higher  law  than  man's, 
that  is  God's.  When  God  gave  you 
food  for  Dora,  it  was  just  as  though  He 
commanded  from  the  heavens,  4  Feed 
your  child.'  You  should  obey  this  law. 
You  can  easily  come  over  here  after 
breakfast,  lunch,  and  dinner  to  nurse 


Mr.  Lex  61 

her;  father  won't  miss  you  for  he 
will  be  at  the  store,  and  I'll  do  all  the 
rest  if  you  can  trust  me."  Trust  Mary! 
Yes,  she  could!  And  she  said  such 
grateful,  loving  words  as  warmed  poor 
Mary's  heart. 

Mary  said  to  her  then:  "I  can  ap- 
preciate now,  since  my  boy  is  growing 
older,  how  mothers  love  their  children. 
At  first  I  was  too  young  to  realize  my 
disgrace.  Then,  later,  I  felt  resent- 
ment toward  my  child  as  though  he  were 
the  cause  of  my  shame.  But  now  I  am 
learning  that  he  is  a  blessing  instead  of 
a  punishment.  He  is  a  constant  warn- 
ing and  protection  against  similar  wrong- 
doing on  my  part,  should  I  ever  be 
tempted,  and  a  constant  inspiration  to 
make  the  most  of  my  life  for  his  sake. 
I  am  beginning  to  dread  the  ignorance 
his  frequent  questions  may  soon  dis- 
cover and  I  am  beginning  my  stud- 
ies just  where  I  dropped  them  in  the 
grammar  school.  In  this  city,  as  he 
grows  up,  he  can  secure  a  good  educa- 
tion free;  and  should  he  want  more 
after  the  high  school  is  passed,  he  and  I 


62  Mr.  Lex 

can  work  for  that.  I  shall  not  let  him 
feel  that  his  birth  makes  it  impossible 
for  him  to  succeed,  but  I  shall  tell  him 
of  Alexander  Hamilton,  Henry  M. 
Stanley  and  many  others  who  each  be- 
gan life  under  a  cloud  as  he  did  and 
conquered  a  place  in  the  world  by  abil- 
ity and  industry." 

Now  that  Mary  had  begun,  she  told 
about  other  thoughts  which  had  been 
filling  her  mind  as  she  worked  alone. 
"  Sometimes  I  think  there  was  a  mis- 
take in  our  Creator's  planning  and  that 
both  parties  to  such  a  wrong  should 
have  a  child  sent  to  them,  not  as  a 
public  curse  to  bring  them  deserved 
shame,  but  as  a  holy  blessing  to  purify 
their  lives.  I  have  even  thought  with 
pity  of  the  father  of  my  boy,  who  has 
no  soft  baby  arms  around  his  neck,  no 
tender  baby  lips  pressed  to  his  cheek, 
no  slender,  satin-smooth  fingers  clinging 
to  his  hand,  no  soft  yielding  little  body 
to  press  close  to  him,  no  child  with 
awakening  mental  and  spiritual  powers 
to  lift  him  up.  Perhaps  if  he  had  he 
would  not  have  grown  so  wicked  as  he 


Mr.  Lex  63 

now  is.  So,  appreciating  now  the  blessing 
of  a  little  child  and  knowing  how  much 
you  must  love  your  baby,  I  got  Dora 
for  you." 

It  seemed  strange  that  the  baby  far- 
mer neglected  to  count  her  babies  for 
several  days,  and  then  neglected  to  re- 
port the  loss  for  several  weeks,  and  that 
then  Mr.  Lex  was  ashamed  to  tell  and 
Mrs.  Lex  felt  under  no  obligation  to 
disclose  Dora's  hiding  place.  But  Mr. 
Lex  knew  he  was  legally  right,  and  that 
eased  his  conscience. 

Dora  got  along  well  in  Mary's  plain 
and  quiet  home.  One  day  Mary  said: 
"Mother,  I  don't  think  the  laws  are 
fair.  Here  you  have  always  been  good, 
and  yet  you  have  suffered  so  much 
through  father's  having  sole  authority 
over  your  children,  while  I,  who  was  a 
bad  girl,  may  God  forgive  me,  have  my 
baby  safe,  no  husband  to  torture  me,  no 
father  to  torture  him  and  I  think  I  am 
having  a  better  time  than  you  are.  You, 
the  mother  of  legitimate  children,  ought 
to  have  as  much  joy  in  and  authority 
over  your  children,  as  I,  the  mother  of 
an  illegitimate  child." 


64  Mr.  Lex 

"Why,  Mary,"  said  Mrs.  Lex,  "I  never 
thought  of  making  such  a  comparison 
between  the  authority  of  the  mother  of 
an  illegitimate  child,  and  of  one  born 
in  lawful  wedlock.  But  what  you  say 
is  true/' 

"Then  too,"  continued  Mary,  "al- 
though I  work  so  hard  for  small 
pay;  though  the  neighbors  ignore  me 
and  churches  might  not  welcome  me; 
yet  I  am  not  a  slave  like  you.  But  if 
I  should  now  marry  my  boy's  father, 
the  boy  would  be  legitimated  and  his 
father  would  at  once  have  sole  control 
over  him.  Some  weeks  ago  his  father 
did  ask  me  to  marry  him.  If  he  had 
come  three  years  ago,  I  would  gladly 
have  done  it,  but  now  I  see  what  he  is. 
I  dared  not  give  my  boy  such  a  father. 
I  said  no.  I  think  he  wanted  to  share 
in  my  little  home  here  since  his  fortune 
has  all  been  dissipated.  So  I  am  more 
free  than  you,  at  least  during  the  first 
ten  years  of  my  child's  life.  Then  the 
law  begins  its  injustice  to  me.  The 
father  of  my  child,  who  never  shared  in 
his  care  during  the  child's  early  years, 


Mr.  Lex  65 

who  could  not  be  forced  by  law  to  pay 
over  five  hundred  and  fifty  dollars  for 
his  support  during  these  ten  years  if  the 
verdict  were  the  highest  possible,  and 
who,  as  an  actual  fact,  never  gave  one 
cent  for  or  saw  my  child,  can,  when 
the  ten  years  is  past,  step  up  to  the  Cir- 
cuit Court  with  a  petition  for  the  cus- 
tody of  my  child,  alleging  that  I  am 
unsuitable  (47).  I  am  afraid  a  man 
judge  and  men  jurors  would  all  decide 
that  I  was  unsuitable  because  I  was 
wrong  once." 

"Don't  worry  about  that,"  said  Mrs. 
Lex  comfortingly,  "he  won't  love  your 
child  enough  to  want  him." 

"But,"  said  Mary,  "then  the  boy  will 
be  nearly  ready  to  earn  wages;  and 
whether  he  loves  him  or  not  he  might 
covet  his  services;  and  what  solace 
would  I  have  during  my  old  age, 
I,  who  have  faced  scorn  and  poverty  for 
my  child?  That  is  a  cruel  law;  and  if 
it  is  not  changed  before  my  boy  is  ten, 
I  will  move  to  Colorado,  where  women 
are  politically  equal  to  men.  But  I  be- 
lieve there  must  be  changes  here. 


66  Mr.  Lex 

Things  have  changed  since  1845.  Then 
the  father  of  an  illegitimate  child  might 
demand  possession  of  the  child  and  up- 
on refusal  be  no  longer  liable  on  the 
bond  he  had  given  for  its  support."(48) 

Mrs.  Lex  doubted  the  possibility  of 
ever  changing  these  laws,  but  admitted 
that  her  respect  for  man-made  laws  was 
diminishing. 

Mary  urged  her  mother  to  get  a  di- 
vorce so  she  could  have  the  custody  of 
her  children  decreed  to  her.  The 
daughter  perhaps  felt  more  indignant 
toward  her  father  just  then  because  he 
had  collected  some  of  the  money  due 
her  from  one  of  her  best  customers. 
He  had  sued  the  customer  and  had  se- 
cured the  usual  judgment,  the  Justice 
stating  that  the  earnings  of  minors  (she 
was  not  yet  eighteen)  belonged  to  the 
father. 

It  was  a  bitter  experience  to  see  her 
money  go  into  the  pockets  of  the 
father  who  had  turned  her  out  of  the 
house.  As  a  result  she  and  her  child 
had  been  reduced  to  very  plain  fare  for 
two  weeks. 


Mr.  Lex  67 

Young  Smith  said  to  her  later  that  he 
wished  she  had  told  him  and  let  him 
fight  it.  He  claimed  that  her  father's 
expelling  her  from  the  home  amounted 
to  her  emancipation  from  her  liability 
as  a  minor.  And  yet  there  was  a  law 
(49)  by  which  children  even  when  of 
age  were  obliged  to  support  poor 
parents;  and  if  Mr.  Lex  had  not  got 
the  money  away  from  her  by  one 
method,  he  might  have  got  it  by  the 
other. 

But  Mary  was  young  and  could  earn 
more  money,  and  her  trouble  did  not 
make  her  meek  but  inspired  her  to  re- 
taliation. She  asked  Smith  about  the 
divorce  so  her  mother  could  have  con- 
trol of  the  children.  He  said  Mrs.  Lex 
had  no  legal  ground.  Mr.  Lex  was  not 
licentious,  nor  a  drunkard,  nor  a  big- 
amist, nor  had  he  struck  her,  nor  at- 
tempted to  take  her  life,  nor  deserted 
her;  (50)  nor  could  she  even  bring  a  suit 
for  separate  maintenance  as  they  were 
still  under  the  same  roof. 

So,  with  the  hope  of  securing  the  con- 
trol of  her  children  gone,  Mrs.  Lex  con- 
tinued to  bear  her  burden. 


68  Mr.  Lex 

Some  weeks  after  this  either  the  un- 
explained loss  of  Dora,  never  confided 
to  his  wife,  or  some  hereditary  trait 
caused  Mr.  Lex  to  act  so  strangely  and 
wildly  that  the  neighbors  thought  he  was 
insane,  and  were  so  frightened  that  they 
had  him  sent  to  the  detention  hospital. 

At  the  trial  of  his  sanity  among 
other  eccentric  freaks  which  were  re- 
lated were  his  actions  toward  the  mem- 
bers of  his  family  in  exercising  his 
authority  as  guardian  entitled  to  the 
custody  and  control  of  the  children. 

Mr.  Lex  defended  himself  with  con- 
siderable skill.  He  admitted  that  re- 
cently he  might  have  done  a  few  things 
to  the  neighbors  which  the  law  did  not 
allow,  but  said  that  in  his  relations  with 
his  family  he  had  followed  th  law 
strictly.  He  read  from  the  sta 
cited  one  case  after  another 
reports. 

Lawyer  Smith  spoke  on  the  other 
side  and  very  severely.  He  said:  "No 
man  who  was  sane  would  think  of  en- 
forcing those  laws  so  strictly.  They 
have  come  down  to  us  from  an  ancient 


Mr.  Lex  69 

time  when  conditions  were  different, 
when  women  and  children  were  kept 
behind  walls  for  their  own  protection 
from  bands  of  roving  destroyers,  when 
the  mailed  and  armed  father  was  the 
chivalrous  guardian  of  all.  To  him, 
the  strongest,  the  owner  of  property, 
the  warrior,  was  full  authority  given. 

"At  the  time  these  laws  originated  no 
one  contemplated  that  a  father  might 
be  as  improvident  and  as  incapable  as 
was  Mr.  Lex,  nor  could  anyone  have 
foreseen  the  changing  position  of  wo- 
man and  her  gradual  development  into 
a  stronger  person  more  fitted  to  rule 
her  children  then  was  the  shut-in  wo- 
man of  centuries  ago,  who  never  went 
beyond  her  walls,  could  not  read,  and 
thought  but  as  a  child.  These  laws, 
under  which  Mr.  Lex  acted,  originated 
long  ago  and  have  not  been  changed  to 
keep  up  with  the  spirit  of  the  times. 
Many  do  not  realize  their  possible  in- 
justice because  many  husbands  and  fa- 
thers have  kind  hearts  and  never  think 
of  living  up  so  strictly  to  their  ancient 
legal  rights.  If  only  for  one  day  every 


70  Mr.  Lex 

husband  in  Illinois  should  do  these 
things  done  by  Mr.  Lex,  there  would 
be  such  a  rebellion  against  their  author- 
ity by  all  women  that  we  men  would 
find  less  complaining  in  Tophet."  At 
this  point  several  married  men  present 
nodded  significantly. 

Mr.  Smith  said,  in  concluding  his 
speech: 

"In  the  coming  Legislature,  of  which 
I  expect  to  be  a  member,  I  shall  do  all 
that  one  man  can  to  repeal  such  unjust, 
cruel  laws  and  to  bring  equal  rights  to 
women.  So  long  as  one  woman  can  be 
made  to  endure  such  wrongs  as  Mrs. 
Lex  has  borne,  all  under  the  sanction  of 
law,  then  the  happiness,  the  liberties, 
the  rights  of  all  women  are  en- 
dangered. I  shall  want  these  laws 
changed  for  man's  sake  too.  Uncon- 
trolled, irresponsible  power  is  often  the 
greatest  curse  to  him  who  wields  it. 
Let  us,  as  men,  put  away  from  us  such 
opportunities  for  cruelty  and  injustice 
and  give  mothers  equal  power  with 
fathers.  But  with  these  laws  as  they 
now  stand  no  sane  man  should  think  of 


Mr.  Lex  71 

enforcing  them.  That  Mr.  Lex  did  is 
sure  proof  of  his  insanity." 

Mr.  Smith  did  speak  sharply,  but  the 
jury  seemed  to  agree  with  him  and  soon 
returned  with  a  verdict  that  Mr.  Lex 
was  insane,  and  the  Judge  had  an  order 
entered  for  his  commitment  to  the  asy- 
lum. 

The  Judge  said:  "In  view  of  all  the 
facts  the  verdict  of  the  jury  seems  a 
right  one;  but  my  young  friend  Mr, 
Smith  is  a  little  too  severe  in  his  objec- 
tions to  the  law  relating  to  the  father's 
unlimited  control  over  the  child.  It 
is  true  the  State  makes  the  father 
guardian  and  custodian.  Yet  the  State 
retains  some  supervision,  and  there  are 
many  statutes  for  the  child's  benefit 
limiting  paternal  control,  as  it  existed 
under  the  old  common  law;  for  example: 
the  statutes  forbidding  certain  employ- 
ments (51),  forbidding  the  giving  of  to- 
bacco to  minors  under  sixteen  years  of 
age  (52),  compelling  sixteen  weeks' 
school  attendance  (53),  prescribing  pen- 
alties for  wilful  cruelty  (54),  for  endan- 
gering life  or  health  (55)  andforaban- 


72  Mr.  Lex 

donment  of  a  child  under  one  year  of  age 
(56).  In  addition  to  this  restriction  on 
paternal  authority,  the  father  cannot  ap- 
prentice the  child  without  the  mother's 
consent  (57),  nor  remove  the  family 
from  the  homestead  without  her  con- 
sent unless  he  has  furnished  another 
home  (58),  nor  dispose  of  the  custody 
and  tuition  of  his  child  by  will  if  the 
mother  be  suitable  and  desirous  of  act- 
ing as  guardian  (59),  nor  deprive  her 
of  her  child's  custody  if  he  is  a  lunatic. 
(60). 

"It  is  being  more  generally  recognized 
that  the  mother  is  intimately  connected 
with  the  child.  In  a  recent  decision, 
Allaire  vs.  St.  Luke's  Hospital,  76  111., 
App.  540,  the  Court  held  that  the  child 
before  birth  was  a  part  of  the  mother 
and  not  a  separate  entity.  Public 
opinion  approves  considering  a  very 
young  child  a  mother's  special  care, 
and  many  fathers,  recognizing  the 
mother's  peculiar  fitness  for  deciding 
matters  affecting  a  child's  welfare, 
never  think  of  exercising  their  own 
legal  authority.  Even  when  there  is  a 


Mr.  Lex  73 

contest  between  the  parents,  and  judges 
have  the  discretion  to  award  the  cus- 
tody of  a  child  to  whichever  of  the 
parents  seems  best  fitted  for  the  duty, 
judges  often  select  the  mother  for  very 
young  children.  Perhaps  the  discre- 
tion of  men  judges  may  occasionally  lead 
them  to  grant  the  custody  to  unworthy 
fathers,  but  with  the  thought  before 
them  that  the  child's  good  is  the  end 
sought,  judges  have  often  felt  free  to 
recognize  the  mother's  ability.  In  view 
of  this  progress  there  is  ground  for 
hope  of  greater  extension  of  mothers' 
privileges." 

The  Judge  seemed  much  interested  in 
this  matter,  although  it  did  not  directly 
affect  the  case  at  bar.  He  went  on  to 
say,  "Some  of  the  annoyances  which 
Mr.  Lex  has  caused  were  the  fault,  not 
of  law,  but  of  industrial  conditions.  "If 
Mrs.  Lex  had  been  in  the  store  re- 
ceiving pay  for  groceries,  she  would 
have  had  some  ready  cash  with  which 
to  purchase  supplies  and  to  exercise 
her  judgment;  and  if  at  the  same  time 
Mr.  Lex  had  been  forced  to  do  house- 


74  Mr.  Lex 

work  at  home  and  care  for  the  children 
with  no  salary,  he  might  have  been 
obliged  to  submit  to  her  judgment  in 
many  things.  But  it  was  not  so.  Mrs. 
Lex,  like  nine-tenths  of  the  women  in 
the  United  States,  did  all  her  own  work 
and  had  no  wages.  Without  money 
she  was  powerless  to  carry  out  her  own 
wishes.  Women  must  have  some  finan- 
cial resources  before  they  can  ever  stand 
equal  to  their  husbands  in  the  control 
of  their  children.  If  women  continued 
financially  dependent,  they  would  still 
be  inferior. 

"As  to  the  specific  acts  done  by  Mr. 
Lex,  none  of  them  were  criminal,  none 
of  them  would  be  sufficient  ground  for  a 
divorce.  Apparently  they  were  all 
sanctioned  by  the  law  of  this  State.  All 
men  must  be  ashamed  that  the  severest 
portions  of  these  laws  have  not  been 
changed  and  the  burdens  of  the  so-called 
weaker  sex  lightened.  Mr.  Lex  has 
been  law-abiding  to  the  point  of  atroc- 
ity and  insanity.  He  must  go  to  the 
asylum." 

This  was  a  blow  to  Mr.  Lex.     To  be 


Mr.  Lex  75 

incarcerated  in  an  asylum  for  support- 
ing too  well  the  constitutions  and  law 
he  had  sworn  to  uphold  when  he  was 
admitted  to  the  bar,  dazed  him. 

When  Mrs.  Lex  visited  him  at  the 
asylum,  he  seemed  scarcely  to  know 
her.  The  physicians  told  her  he  had 
been  irresponsible  fora  long  time.  Then 
she  forgave  him  all,  and  remembered 
him  only  as  the  tender,  loving  husband 
he  had  been  years  ago. 

In  a  few  months  he  died  and  the  only 
mourner  was  the  woman  whom  he  had 
so  cruelly  wronged. 

Mrs.  Lex  now  carries  on  the  store. 
John,  who  is  now  trying  to  form  better 
habits,  is  her  helper.  Rob  is  now  back 
in  Chicago  finishing  at  the  high  school. 
Jennie  has  been  divorced  from  her 
drunken  husband,  the  Court  allowing 
her  to  keep  the  two  children,  one  of 
whom  is  an  imbecile.  She  is  embroid- 
ering for  the  Woman's  Exchange,  and  is 
helping  Mary  sew.  Mary  took  them 
all  into  her  little  cottage.  Mrs.  Lex, 
John,  Rob,  Jennie  and  her  two  chil- 
dren, little  Dora  and  Mary's  child,  now 
comprise  the  family. 


76  Mr.  Lex 

Timid  Mrs.  Lex  is  now  less  timid;  and 
one  day  she  startled  Mary  by  saying: 
"I  have  thought  many  times  about 
what  the  Judge  and  Mr.  Smith  said  at 
your  father's  trial.  The  laws  ought  to 
be  changed,  but  I  don't  believe  they  will 
be  until  the  majority  of  women,  seeing 
what  sad  things  are  possible  under  the 
law,  work  for  and  demand  changes.  I 
fear  that  men  alone  will  not  so  clearly 
see  the  need.  Some  men  surely  know 
about  these  injustices;  for  they  are 
judges,  jurors,  police  magistrates,  con- 
stables, and  hear  many  of  these  sad  cases ; 
and  yet  they  seem  too  fond  of  power  or 
too  indifferent  to  our  sufferings  to 
make  the  necessary  changes.  To  the 
individual  woman,  as  to  me,  they  often 
try  to  be  merciful,  but  the  law  forbids 
their  being  just,  and  they  forget  that 
the  law  unchanged  makes  it  possible 
for  every  woman  to  suffer  as  I  have  suf- 
fered. Very  few  women  have  learned 
in  the  bitter  school  of  experience  as  I 
have  about  the  legal  status  of  mother 
and  child.  Yet,  as  all  women  may  be- 
come mothers,  there  is  a  chance  that 


Mr.  Lex  77 

all  may  suffer.  I  do  not  pretend  that 
my  wrongs  are  the  only  ones.  I  know 
that  wage-earning  women  receive  less 
than  men  for  the  same  work;  that  many 
schools  of  technical  training  are  still 
closed  to  women;  that  custom  keeps 
women  away  from  many  remunerative 
employments,  and  that  home  women  do 
not  have  wages. 

"All  this  injustice  should  cease. 
Yet  my  sufferings  have  been  from  an- 
other cause.  The  law  gave  me  no  con- 
trol over  the  children  who  were  part  of 
my  being,  when  I,  next  to  God,  was 
their  creator.  So  I  think  especially  of 
this.  Nor  am  I  the  only  woman  who 
has  suffered  from  this  cause.  Many 
women  have  confided  their  troubles  to 
me,  and  I  find  that  in  many  homes 
mothers  and  children  are  being  wronged 
through  the  fathers'  ignorant  yet  un- 
limited, domineering  control.  While  my 
wrongs  were  greater  than  some  of 
theirs,  yet  I  was  in  no  way  better  fitted 
to  endure  them.  I  was  only  an  aver- 
age woman.  If  I  had  been  unusually 
brilliant  and  had  been  able  to  win  fame 


78  Mr.  Lex 

and  fortune  with  pen  or  brush  or  voice, 
I  could  have  helped  myself  and  my  chil- 
dren better.  Or  if  I  had  been  very 
beautiful,  admiring  men,  jurors  and 
judges,  might  have  strained  a  point  in 
my  favor,  especially  if  I  had  also  been 
fascinatingly  wicked. 

"My  love  for  my  children,  which  grew 
to  be  the  strongest  force  in  my  life, 
even  that  did  not  make  me  noticeably 
different  from  the  majority  of  mothers. 
I  did  no  more  for  my  children,  sacri- 
ficed no  more  for  them,  than  the  ma- 
jority of  mothers  do  or  are  willing  to 
do.  I  was  only  an  average  mother. 
So  I  believe  other  women,  all  mothers, 
would  feel  as  I  do  and  be  glad  to 
help.  Cousin  Jane  and  Cousin  Rose, 
who  knew  our  troubles,  felt  for  us;  and 
other  women,  if  they  should  learn 
about  such  things,  surely  would  not  be 
so  indifferent  as  men  have  been,  but 
would  unite  with  us  in  securing  per- 
manent changes." 

"But,  mother,'*  said  Mary,  "what  can 
you  and  I  do?  We  work  so  hard  every 
day  that  we  have  no  time  left  for  any 


Mr.  Lex  79 

thing  else.  Would  I,  the  mother  of  an 
illegitimate  child,  be  listened  to  in  any 
woman's  club  or  church?  I  could  not 
even  use  correct  English,  I,  a  mother 
before  I  was  fifteen  years  old.  I  would 
not  be  good  enough  to  speak  from  the 
lofty  standpoint  of  unassailed  virtue, 
nor  would  I  be  bad  enough  to  make  an 
interesting,  horrid  example.  My  story, 
ruined  before  fifteen,  supported  child 
ever  since,  is  too  commonplace  to  win 
attention.  If  I  could  relate  a  thrilling 
tale  of  vice,  of  years  of  evil,  I  would 
still  be  welcomed  cordially  to  the  beau- 
tifully-kept reformatories  of  the  most 
charitable,  and  the  kind  ladies  of  the 
Board  might  enjoy  hearing  my  experi- 
ences. They  would  feel  very  compla- 
cent about  having  furnished  me  a  com- 
fortable place  in  which  to  die,  and 
would  be  so  busy  at  that  that  they 
would  have  little  time  to  change  laws. 
So  I  am  not  good  enough  and  not  bad 
enough  to  be  an  attractive  or  popular 
speaker.  And  you,  timid  little  mother, 
with  your  weak  voice  and  bent  back  and 
shabby  clothes,  would  they  listen  to 


8o  Mr.  Lex 

you,  especially  if  some  one  should  e 
that  you  were  once  imprisoned  for 
stealing  a  child  and  found  guilty?  No, 
women  generally  would  not  listen.  If 
they  thought  jy  were  to  discover 
such  sad  things,  they  would  shut  their 
ey  ^>  and  stick  their  fingers  in  their  ears 
for  fear  their  own  comfort  with  indul- 
gent husbands  would  be  disturbed." 

"You  are  hitter,  Mary/'  said  Mrs. 
Lex,  "but  women's  hearts  are  kind. 
You  and  I  cannot  speak  or  go  to  meet- 
ings, that  is  true;  we  have  no  powerful 
friends,  no  gift  of  language;  but  the 
time  is  coming  when  women  of  educa- 
tion and  wealth  and  leisure  and  social 
prestige  will  take  up  the  cause  of 
women,  other  women,  all  women.  Just 
now  some  of  them  are  more  interested, 
apparently,  in  'society,'  clubs,  Hindoo 
philosophy,  whist,  or  the  heathen  or 
drunkards,  criminals  or  incompetents. 
They  are  busy  studying,  entertaining, 
reforming,  curing,  They  are  only  sleep- 
ing on  the  question  of  women's  needs. 
They  will  wake  up  soon  to  the  injustice 
possible  to  all  their  sex,  and  will  begin 


Mr.  Lex  81 

a  work  greater  than  that  of  charity  or 
of  philanthropy.  They  will  begin  to  se- 
cure justice.  Then  mothers  will  be 
equal  to  fathers." 


TABLE   OF    LEGAL   CITATIONS. 


Abbreviations  used: 

R.  S.— Revised  Statutes  of  Illinois. 

162  111.,  361— Volume  162  of  the  Illinois  Supreme 
Court  Reports,  page  361. 

111.  App.— Illinois  Appellate  Court  Reports. 

Am.  &  Eng.  Ency.  of  Law.— American  and  English 
Encyclopedia  of  Law.  First  Edition. 

1.  Chap.  68,  Sec.  9,  R.  S. 

2.  Chap.  148,  Sec.  I,  R.  S. 

3.  Hyman  vs.  Harding,  162  111.,  361. 

4.  Garfield  vs.  Scott,  33  111.  App.,  319. 

5.  Smith  vs.  Slocum,  62  111.,  358. 

6.  Barrett  vs.  Riley,  42  111.  App.,  260. 
McMahon  vs.  Sankey,  133  111.,  648. 
Magee  vs.  Magee,  65  111.,  255. 

7.  Capek    vs.  Kropik,   129    111.,   515, 
Koster  vs.  Miller,  149  111.,  200. 

8.  Bradley  vs.  Sattler,   54  111.  App., 
506,  156  111.,  608. 

9.  Temple  vs.  Freed,  21  111.  App.,  239. 

10.  Woodyatt  vs.  Connell,  38  111.  App., 
481,  Chap.  68,  Sec.  16,  R.  S. 

11.  Chap.  38,  Sec.  237,  R.  S. 

12.  Chap.  38,  Sec.  237,  R.  S. 

13.  Chap.  17,  Sec.  8,  R.  S. 


Mr.  Lex  83 

14,  Chap.  17,  Sec.  14,  R.  S. 

15,  Vetten  vs.  Wallace,39lll.  App.,390. 

16,  Gliddenvs.  Nelson,i5  111.  App.,297. 

17,  Chap.  68,  Sec.  24,  R.  S. 

18     Ford  vs.  McKay,  55  111.,  119. 

19.  21  Am.  &  Eng.  Ency.  of  Law,  1009 
and  1016. 

20.  Grable  vs.  Margrave,  4  111.,  372. 

21.  White  vs.  Murtlandt,  71   111.,  251. 
Garretson  vs.  Becker,  52  111.  App., 
255.    Bayles  vs.    Burgard,   48    111. 

App.,  371. 

22.  Ball  vs.  Bruce,  21  111.,  162. 

23.  Hobson  vs.  Fullerton,  4  111.  App., 
284. 

24.  Scharf  vs.  People,  134  111.,  240,  and 
cases  there   cited.      Maynard   vs. 
People,  135  111.,  430.  Coleman  vs. 
Frum,  4  111.,  378. 

25.  Hudson  vs.  King  Brothers,  23  111. 
App.,  122. 

26.  Argument  of  E.  H.  &  N.  E.  Gary 
in  Walcott   vs.  Hoffman,   30   111. 
App.,  79. 

27.  Cole  vs.  Bentley,  26  111.  App.,  260. 
Walcott  vs.  Hoffman,  30  111.  App., 
77- 


84  Mr.  Lex 

28.  Hudson  vs.  King  Brothers,  23  111. 
App.,  122.  Glaubensklee  vs.  Lew, 
29  111.  App,,  413. 

29.  Chap.  68,  Sec.  15,  R.  S. 

30.  Chap.  52,  Sec.  13,  R.  S. 

31.  John  V.  Farwell  &  Co.  vs.  Martin, 
65  111.  App,,  57. 

32.  Clinton  vs.  Kidwell,  82  111.,  427. 

33.  Barrett  vs.  Riley,  42  III,  App.,  260. 
Tyler  vs.  Sanborn,  128  111.,  144. 

34.  Temple    vs.   Freed,  21   111.  App., 

239. 

35.  Bradley  vs.  Sattler,  156  111.,  608. 

36.  Chap,  68,  Sec.  16,  R.  S. 

37.  Chap.  89,  Sec.  13,  R.  S. 

38.  Parker  vs.  Parker,  52  111.  App.,  333. 

39.  Chap.  122,  Sec.  313,  R.  S. 

40.  Chap.  38,  Sec.  2,  R.  S. 

41.  Miner  vs.  Miner,  II  111.,  50.  17  Am. 
&  Eng.  Ency.  of  Law,  364. 

42.  People   vs.   Porter,   23  111.   App., 
196;  Umlauf  vs.  Umlauf,   128  111., 
383.  Perry  vs.  Carmichael,  95  111., 
530;  Wright   vs.    Bennett,   7   111., 
587;  Bedford  vs.  Bedford,  136  111., 

361. 

43.  Chap.  64,  Sec.  4,  R.  S. 


Mr.  Lex  85 

44.  Miner  vs.  Miner,  n  111.,  51. 

45.  17  Am.  &  Eng.  Ency.  of  L.,  365; 
See    opinion     of     Chief     Justice 
Breese  in  Miner  vs.  Miner,  n  III, 

43- 

46.  Pierce  vs,  Millay,  62  111,,  134. 

47.  Chap.  17,  Sec,  13,  R.  S. 

48.  Wright  vs.  Bennett,  7  111.,  587. 

49.  Chap.  107,  Sec.  2,  R.  S, 

50.  Chap.  40,  Sec.  i,  R.  S. 

51.  Chap.  38,  Sec.  42,  a.  R.  S. 

52.  Chap.  38,  Sec.  42,  f.  R.  S. 

53.  Chap.  122,  Sec.  313,  R.  S. 

54.  Chap.  38,  Sec.  53,  R.  S. 

55.  Chap.  38,  Sec.  42,  d.  R.  S. 

56.  Chap.  38,  Sec.  42,  h.  R,  S. 

57.  Chap.  9,  Sec.  2,  R.  S, 

58.  Chap.  68,  Sec,  16,  R.  S. 

59.  Chap.  64,  Sec,  5,  R.  S. 

60.  Chap,  86,  Sec.  5,  R.  S. 

61.  Stolz  vs.  Doering,  112  111.,  239. 


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